a16z Podcast
Emmett Shear, founder of Twitch and former OpenAI interim CEO, challenges the fundamental assumptions driving AGI development. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg and Séb Krier, Shear argues that the entire “control and steering” paradigm for AI alignment is fatally flawed. Instead, he proposes “organic alignment” – teaching AI systems to genuinely care about humans the way we naturally do. The discussion explores why treating AGI as a tool rather than a potential being could be catastrophic, how current chatbots act as “narcissistic mirrors,” and why the only sustainable path forward is creating AI that can say no to harmful requests. Shear shares his technical approach through multi-agent simulations at his new company Softmax, and offers a surprisingly hopeful vision of humans and AI as collaborative teammates – if we can get the alignment right.
Resources:
Follow Emmett on X: https://x.com/eshear
Follow Séb on X: https://x.com/sebkrier
Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg
Stay Updated:
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!
Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z
Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711
Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on X
Find a16z on LinkedIn
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
-
Alex Honnold on Human Performance (part 1) – Where’s the Limit?
Is there a limit to what humans can do? And if so, how do you know when you’ve reached it? Welcome to part one of a two-part series on human performance with professional rock climber…
-
Why We Shouldn’t Fear AI in Healthcare
“Why We Shouldn’t Fear the ‘Black Box’ of AI (in Healthcare and Everywhere)” by Vijay Pande. First published in the New York Times, January 2018. You can also find and share this article at a16z.com/aidoctor
-
When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China
“When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China” by Connie Chan. First published August 2015. You can also find and share this essay at a16z.com/mobilefirstchina
-
Every Company Is a Fintech Company
“Why Every Company Will Be a Fintech Company — The Next Era of Financial Services and the ‘AWS Phase’ for Fintech” by Angela Strange. You can also find and share this essay at a16z.com/fintecheverywhere …
-
Read-Alouds, Continued
Today we’re continuing a series we started a while ago of read-alouds (for more context on the why and why now check out episode #500 on how we podcast!). The first was episode #544 in…
-
Journal Club: Revisiting Eroom’s Law
Eroom’s Law is Moore’s Law spelled backwards. It’s a term that was coined in a Nature Reviews Drug Discovery article by researchers at Sanford Bernstein and describes the exponential decrease in biopharma research and development…
-
Preventing Pandemics with Genomic Epidemiology
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the visibility of scientists and the scientific process to the broader public; suddenly, scientists working on virology and infectious disease dynamics have seen their public profiles rapidly expand. One such…
-
Journal Club: Therapeutic Video Game on Trial
In this episode of the a16z bio journal club, we cover one of the key clinical trials that supported the recent FDA approval of the first prescription video game. The game was developed by Akili…
-
Gross Margins, Early to Late: What They Do (and Don’t) Tell You
Gross margins are essentially a company’s revenue from products and services minus the costs to deliver those products and services to customers, and it’s one of the most important financial metrics a startup can track.…
-
Gross Margins, Early to Late: What They Do (and Don’t) Tell You
Gross margins are essentially a company’s revenue from products and services minus the costs to deliver those products and services to customers, and it’s one of the most important financial metrics a startup can track.…